Coverage partial

The Tribune coverage of electioneering in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh is anything but fair and impartial. It is tilted against the SAD-BJP in Punjab and the BJP in Himachal. By publishing the investigation for the past three days, whom is the paper trying to help and damage? Was a similar investigative report about the Congress government in Haryana carried at the time of electioneering for the Haryana Lok Sabha seats? If no, why not?

Raj Chengappa’s piece “Jibe for jibe, Amritsar remained a golden fight” (April 27) makes a sweeping statement: “With so many scams being exposed, the credibility of Indian politicians is low, especially among the middle class.” Is there not a single honest politician, commanding credibility, both in the government and the Opposition?

Let the reader be the ultimate judge. Just as the voter is the ultimate judge in elections, for a newspaper, the reader is the final arbiter.

AC Vashishth, via email

Recipe for jobs

All parties are promising employment to the youth without any concrete plans. The following proposals can generate employment and also improve the health of the employees:

1. The facility of leave encashment should be stopped. In exceptional cases, where the employer does not sanction leave due to some reason, the employee should be compensated at the rate of twice his pay. It will generate about 8% jobs without any financial liability.

2. Encashment of leave travel concession (LTC) should also be stopped

3. At present, employees are exploited to work 10-12 hours a day. At some places, they work even during night time and on holidays. The condition in the private sector is worse. This practice should be stopped. Biometric attendance machines should be installed in offices to ensure that nobody works for more than eight hours. In some rare cases, if one has to work beyond the eight hours, overtime allowance should be given at double the normal pay rates. This will create more than 25% jobs in one go and substantially improve the stress level in the offices.

NARESH C BANSAL, via email

Fight over issues

I disagree with Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma who says that Modi is “diseased, a megalomaniac” because he (Modi) has “for long been conducting himself as a Prime Minister even before the results have been pronounced” (“Congress says Modi diseased, is megalomaniac”, April 25). As per neuropsychology, hallucination is a pernicious disease that eats up the neural networks of one’s brain, leaving a patient disoriented and emotionally disordered. In such cases, treatment of electrical stimulations to their brains will, to a large extent, liberate the patients of psychological fears and phantom imaginations they are suffering from.

Politicians should criticise their opponents on the basis of issues and refrain from attaching their personal beliefs or traits.

B. L. CHAKOO, Mohali

Expletives & lies

Our political boxers are in the ring with gloves mostly off and expletives are flying wild. A politician’s words are akin to something I saw on an autorickshaw: “Boori nazarwale, NOT tera mooh kala but, tu Pakistan chale ja!!” Will the EC take notice of that too? For our leaders, claiming that all others are telling lies, here is a quote of Sir Winston Churchill: “A lie gets halfway round the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

Commodore Mukund B Kunte (retd), via email

Mudslinging shameful

Mudslinging has become the order of the day in political campaigns. Indecent words and behaviour of the politicians is shameful. What creativity can the electorate expect of the elected?

BRIJ BHUSHAN MITTAL, Chandigarh

‘Tu chor, mein sipahi’

All parties seem to have left the path of decency. None has any solution to the problems that our country is facing. All say one thing: “I am the best, you are a liar.” One says, “Tu chor, mein sipahi.” “No no, tu chor, mein sipahi,” retorts the other. Dilemma, dilemma! The voter is confused....

Pramila Dhiman, Hamirpur

Media-savvy cops

The photograph of one senior superintendent of police of a Punjab district is regularly seen in the newspapers with some criminals caught or addressing mediapersons. Catching criminals is his duty and not a special, peculiar or brave act. Policemen never address a press conference when they are unable to catch criminals or solve the problems of the citizens.

Wg Cdr Jasbir S Minhas (retd), Mohali